It's Sunday, January eleventh, nine fifteen in the evening. Do you know where your brain is? I seem to have misplaced mine.....In an effort to resuscitate the blogging muse, Rise and I challenged each other, again! But inspiration is elusive; I'll just have to start writing down words, and then more words. The theme is Change. The only rule is we can't peek at what the other wrote until we post our own.......Before midnight! I need my brain for this; fine time for it to go missing!
Change is in the air, this new year more than ever. What comes to mind?
Loose change?
Diaper change?
Stock ex-change?
Obama?---"Change we can believe in?"
Changing of the guard?
Change of life?
Change of seasons?
Change of underwear?
Change of heart?
Names changed to protect the innocent?
The more things change the more they stay the same?
Maybe that's why I can't find my brain!
The only thing you can change is your attitude?
Or your mind?
Or the sheets on your bed...
A change is as good as a rest, they say in Ireland.
January always starts with great intentions. Lists are made of things I will change. Things I will organize. Things I will do! But, increasingly, as more and more Januaries roll around, I look about in dismay and realize "Nothing's changed!" Except the face I see when I look in the mirror. Where did the young me disappear to? Maybe she and my brain ran away together....
The brass tacks of getting through three hundred and sixty five days is what stands in the way. Think about it.
Shopping, preparation, cooking and serving of 365 dinners. Boggles the mind, does it not? And then there's the cleanup! Okay, so maybe not quite 365, if you deduct a few for eating out...
How many times do you change your underwear in a year?
Think of all the filthy socks you soak, scrub and toss in the washing machine!
Think of all the buttons and zippers that come loose and need mending.
How many times do you scrub the kitchen floor in a year?
Wash the windows? Yes, we're getting theoretical now!
How many times do you shower? Comb your hair? Have it cut?
Brush your teeth? Visit the dentist?
Take the dog and cat to the vet?
Walk the dog?
Read the newspaper? And a book here and there.....
Clean up hairballs from the floor, where the cat thoughtfully deposited them?
Change [aha!] the cat litter?
Water the house plants? Weed the garden? Trim the shrubs?
It keeps a person busy, just maintaining! Who has time to change anything when you're pedaling as fast as you can? Since, when all of that is done, there are quilts to be made, blogs to be read, Ancients to be visited, inspiration to be found, somewhere, and blog posts written......
And yet, change is sneaky. It happens when you're not looking.......
Children grow up....You thought you'd always have them near.
Parents grow old.....or worse yet, die too soon.
And nobody warned you to brace yourself!
But if nothing else changes, I hope, that as the Januaries fly by, I'll at least grow wiser, as well as older.
Note: The picture is my Christmas jigsaw puzzle, finally finished today. It's a picture of a cottage in Adare, a picturesque village a few miles out from my hometown in Ireland. Proof that nothing stays the same. When I was growing up it was a quiet little place, often visited by tourists. The last time I visited though it had been turned into a tourist mecca, which made it a lot less charming.
13 comments:
It's so true, that maintenance takes up so much time. And then Fixit comes home and says so what did you DO today? Oh just kept us afloat all day, what about you sweetie?
I was cantering along with you up until you got to the filthy socks. Then I changed direction and veered into a ditch.
Well done, Molly! Bringing the glorious banality of our lives out for everyone to rejoice! I must say I quite like the monotony of the humdrum. Sometimes.
Mind you I draw the line at scrubbing the socks .. just bung em in the machine ...
There goes my perfectonist streak ... Whooooosh ....
Thanks for the remembered pleasure of making jigsaws ...
I'm thinking you corroborated with Isabelle instead of Rise (although I haven't read Rise yet...next...) Do you think it's the doldrums of winter that make us wonder what it's all for?
And where on earth are you finding time for jigsaws among everything else? Lovely picture though it may be...
In the wisdom of Dr Phil - all you can change is yourself... (I add) if only you could find the time to manage it!
What a wonderful post! I have set myself some personal goals this year, one of them is to change the way I see things. HARD TASK. I am going to rereadthis regyularly to keep me straight!
I love reading your posts, my children often ask what I do all day as if I sit by the fire with tin of Cadbury roses doing nothing but look at my toes!!! Keep writing your wonderful blog!
Oh yes, I loved this post. But really, the socks... chuck them into soaker, then the machine!
Love that picture, of the charming cottage. I know what you mean by the ruination of tourism!
If only someone could warn us, about how much we would miss those who pass out of our lives. It is one of the reasons I tell my children I love them, every single time I speak to them. Call me smother!
Ho hum. Yes, maintenance is very time consuming. But so are jigsaws. I prefer crosswords as a timewasting activity, myself.
Good job on the Christmas puzzle. Ours is still in the box. I have made a resolution to be more organized. Granted this is a nebulous goal and not measurable. After reading your post, the thought strikes me that many changes may be subtle more of an evolution than a drastic change. May we both be older as well as wiser by the end of this year.
Molly, your brain is certainly a hotbed of ideas! How can you take a "cold muse" and think of so many ideas. You are indeed fertile between your ears.
well now, if this is what you can produce with no brain, I'd like to read when it come back ;) you've got me thinking about change and how I say I dislike it and yet without it we wouldn't exist. time to change my mind, I guess...
My mother in law loves it when I spend time helping her with her favourite activity -jigsaw puzzles.I've always hated doing them since childhood so I just get on with it.It's usually me that finds that difficult piece so it encourages her even more. I don't have the heart to "fess-up" that it drives me to absolute distraction, though I suspect she has a secret pleasure in guessing this!!Also, it's sad when the quaintness of places disappears in the quest for the tourist dollar.In South Australia, we are losing many of our small harbours, now expanded into big flashy marinas, and our local twisty-vined arboured shopping area has now been turned into an up-market steel and glass mall that can be found anywhere.I like the word quaint, but it is being replaced rapidly by 'glitz'.
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